Galileo
"And yet it moves!" Ah, Truth, where wert thou thenWhen all for thee they racked each piteous limb?Wert thou in heaven, and busy with thy hymnWhen those poor hands convulsed that held thy pen?Art thou a phantom that deceives! menTo their undoing? or dost thou watch himPale, cold, and silent in his dungeon dim?And wilt thou ever speak to him again?"It moves, it moves! Alas, my flesh was weak!That was a hideous dream! I'll cry aloudHow the green bulk wheels sunward day by day!Ah me! ah me! perchance my heart was proudThat I alone should know that word to speak!And now, sweet Truth, shine upon these, I pray."
Words in this poem
- undoing n.
- The reversal of what has been done.
- dungeon n.
- A close, dark prison, commondonjon or keep of a castle, these being used as prisons. [OE. donjoun highest tower of a castle, tower, prison, F. donjon tower or platform in the midst of a castle, turret, or closet on the top of a house, a keep of a]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- sunward adv.
- Toward the sun.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Galileo is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, Galileo, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/galileo.html, id L22448.
Form and metre
Galileo is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDEDCE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABBACDEDCE thenA · limbB · hymnB · penA · menA · himB · dimB · againA · weakC · aloudD · dayE · proudD · speakC · prayE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "And yet it moves!" Ah, Truth, where wert thou then | 10 | ·········· |
| When all for thee they racked each piteous limb? | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| Wert thou in heaven, and busy with thy hymn | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| When those poor hands convulsed that held thy pen? | 10 | ·········· |
| Art thou a phantom that deceives! men | 9 | ···/˘·˘/· |
| To their undoing? or dost thou watch him | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Pale, cold, and silent in his dungeon dim? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And wilt thou ever speak to him again? | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| "It moves, it moves! Alas, my flesh was weak! | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| That was a hideous dream! I'll cry aloud | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| How the green bulk wheels sunward day by day! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ah me! ah me! perchance my heart was proud | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| That I alone should know that word to speak! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And now, sweet Truth, shine upon these, I pray." | 10 | ·········· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.